Flower of Janiri
by FasterGhost
Summary: The story happening at the time when protheans had to evacuate from Thessia. Some of them were leaving behind much more than just a scientific project. Told from the POV of prothean/goddess Janiri.


"Damn those reaper bastards!" Janiri cursed and punched the now silent communication device.

When the prothean woman came to Thessia, she was only a young agricultural expert, fresh out of school. Now she was second-in-command of the entire Asari Uplift Project.

She was very proud of the great leaps the asari made in the very short time. Many of her people would dismiss them as primitives. Janiri knew different. They were a very clever race – sometimes too clever. And they embraced a new knowledge with completely open mind unlike many protheans who grew more and more conservative as they aged.

_'Give asari a few spaceships and soon they would rule the galaxy'_ Janiri used to say with a chuckle.

All and all, Janiri really liked her job. She liked it even more when the reapers invaded. Before that, Thessia was considered an unpopular assignment for a scientist – living on a backwater world, trying to teach primitives how to read and write. After the reaper invasion, it suddenly became an oasis of tranquility, far away from the front lines.

But as Janiri rose in ranks and more unfiltered information kept coming to her, she grew more and more desperate. The powerful prothean empire seemed unable to stop the mechanical invaders. The reapers were conquering one system after another and there was no stopping them.

Soon, the empire noticed that they were meticulously avoiding pre-spaceflight species. Immediately, talks about evacuation began among the various uplift projects around the galaxy. Many of them were immediately ended and all prothean technology on their homeworlds destroyed.

Thessia was a different case. Prothean occupation of the asari homeworld lasted over a century. Her people were moving freely among the primitive asari who now considered them to be some sort of goddesses. By that point, many of the prothean personal would have spent most of their adult lives on Thessia.

And with that came the main problem. Asari were curious and sensual people and as a result, many protheans took on lovers and even wives among the indigenous population – people they were now unwilling to be parted with.

As the reapers kept pressing the prothean navy closer to Parnitha system, a heated debate erupted among her people.

Some suggested taking their loved ones with them. This idea was rejected when everyone realized just how badly was the war going. Any asari that would come with them would only be condemned to death.

A few even suggested joining the asari. Destroying all advanced prothean technology and living the rest of their lives as primitives. This suggestion was dismissed too when we observed that the reapers were hunting every prothean in the galaxy. There was a colony of religiously fanatical protheans who believed in life without technology. Despite living in what was essentially stone-age, the reapers still mercilessly wiped them out when they came to their systems. It became clear that if we stayed on Thessia, even as primitives, the asari would end up paying the price.

_'And we could not let that happen – I could not let that happen' _Janiri though.

And so, as Janiri was just informed by commander Athame, a general evacuation order was given.

Protheans were withdrawing.

Intellectually, Janiri knew it was the right decision. It was the only way to protect the asari. Nevertheless, Janiri herself became even more personally involved with the asari than many of her peers.

A decision she never regretted before or after. But right now, at this moment, she could not help but wail to the skies in despair.

* * *

Over the next few weeks, her people destroyed every prothean technology that could be detected by a reaper orbital scan. Asari were very emphatic species and they knew that something was very wrong when they saw the sadness in the eyes of their gods. But still, they trusted in them as always.

They did leave behind one functioning technology. It was Athame's personal initiative to create an archive of all prothean knowledge and leave it very well hidden on Thessia.

When we realized the action pattern of the reapers, we knew that they might one day come to harvest the asari as well. And so we did everything we could to give them a fighting chance when that would happen. Schematics of our most powerful weapons – even theoretical concepts – were all uploaded inside the archive, along with the warnings about reapers.

Even decades after our withdrawal, the archive continued to be updated by a QEC uplink right until our navy was completely obliterated. We told the asari everything – what tactics worked and what did not... even the plans for our super-weapon were sent over... a great pity that we ultimately did not manage to build it in time.

_We have done what we could. The rest was up to them._

* * *

Before Janiri left Thessia forever, there was one last thing to do.

She was walking on a dusty road, beautiful fields of crops lying on both sides of it.

Janiri herself taught them how to tend their fields. She was very proud for that. The asari would never starve again.

As she walked on the Thessia's surface for what would be the last time, she observed the asari working in the fields. When they saw their goddess walking among them, they would stop their work and make a large bow to her. Janiri nodded at them politely, but otherwise ignored them.

_'My destination is clear'_ she thought, as she firmly held the white carton box she carried.

In the centre of the fields, there was a stately looking (at least for the primitive asari) wooden house. When she came closer, she saw a young asari working in the garden. She was planting series of beautiful flowers. Focused on her task, she did not notice the prothean standing behind her who was now watching her work with a small smile.

Janiri finally politely coughed to arouse the asari from her concentration. She turned around and when she saw who it was, she stood up.

"Janiri..." she said meekly and bowed her head.

The prothean put down the white box and came to the asari. She then touched her jaw to raise the asari's head. After looking into her two blue eyes with her own four yellow ones, Janiri pulled her into a hug.

"Lilyana..." Janiri whispered to her, not minding the asari's dirty hands as she hugged her back.

"I brought you a gift" the prothean finally said in the crude asari language when they parted from the hug.

She picked up the white box and lifted the lid. Inside the box was a flowerpot with a single beautiful yellow flower along with a bag of seeds.

"Something for your garden, love" she affectionately called the asari when she saw her ecstatic smile. Lilyana always loved everything that grew.

"It will only grow strong in this soil" Janiri said, looking around the garden that surrounded the house. "Always keep this land, even for your children" Janiri urged her and was pleased when the asari solemnly nodded.

Janiri had another reason for her request. The land around Lilyana's house was highly saturated with element zero. In fact, part of the asteroid that brought all the eezo to Thessia, all those eons ago, was buried half a mile beneath the house. As a result, any asari that will ever grow up in this area would possess a high intelligence and exceptional biotic powers.

"Whenever you look at this flower blooming, you will know that I still love you... even if I am not here anymore" she whispered, her voice gradually betraying her.

Lilyana noticed her discomfort and the words sent her into panic. "Why? Are you leaving me? Please don't!" the girl pleaded and it broke Janiri's heart.

"I have to honey, I am sorry. But know that I am doing this to protect you, to keep you save... because I love you so much" Janiri gently whispered.

"I don't understand..." the asari girl whispered as tears appeared in her eyes.

"I know honey. You might never understand why, but your children's children's children's... children might one day." Janiri said with smile. "Trust me" she urged her.

She was glad that protheans could not cry or she would be pouring water from all of her eyes. Instead she gently cupped the asari's cheek and wiped away the girl's tears with her thumb.

"_**Always be kind and strong and remember me..."**_ she said to her, switching to her more elegant Prothean language, knowing Lilyana would not understand the words but would still feel all the emotions Janiri poured into them.

"_**...my daughter" **_she said to the girl with all the love she could muster as she stroked the asari's freckled cheek.

She them smiled at her for the last time and walked away. Already saying goodbye to her mother a few nights ago, Janiri knew that if she stayed any longer, she would never leave and the two people she came to love more than anything in the world would be doomed.

She got on the last prothean transport to leave Thessia the very same day.

* * *

To Lilyana's credit, she did not run after her father. Instead, she quietly cried as she watched Janiri's form finally disappear beyond the horizon. She planted all of the seeds that evening, each one inevitably watered with her tears.

She obeyed her father's last wishes, remaining strong, kind and intelligent and ultimately passing these traits to her own daughters.

She would also tell them about Janiri and the yellow flower and even though the story itself got a little altered over the thousands of years, the yellow flower was still growing around her descendant's household by the time the reapers came again.

Lilyana did one more thing. At the time the protheans left, the asari did not have family names. She remembered the last words her father spoke to her and even though they were in prothean and she did not understand them, she remembered the look of honest and devoted love in Janiri's eyes.

_**"******__**..**_. ta sani"

She gave those words as a surname to her children who in turn passed it to theirs and so on. Eventually, as asari languages fully developed, it got shortened to _**"T'Sani"**_ and ultimately changed to _**"T'Soni"**_...

But that was another story...

_A/N: Story about how Liara's family received the yellow flower (the legend was briefly mentioned in my other story - Bondmate's ball) and how first T'Soni came to be. Hope you like it. :-)_


End file.
